In the Downpour
by Keen pnet
Summary: A 'OneShot' and Challenge Fiction.


_A friend and I were playing the 'what-if' game and this darling one-shot was born. It's a bizarre something we concocted watching ER and drinking (can you guess what we had?)._

_Entire chunks of italics indicate flashbacks, otherwise it notes emphasis and if you can't find it on then I made it up. _

_Thanks for the inspiration Max!_

_-Cam _

_I shivered in the cold early morning downpour. My teeth chattered as I brought the cigarette to my mouth._ _No matter how many times I tried to quit, by midnight I found myself here. In rain, sleet or snow I'd find myself running to the rooftop desperate for a moment of peace and a cigarette. A slithering cloud of smoke curled from lips as I exhaled. I smiled at the darkened columns studded with their yellow lights. The serene beauty of the glittering skyline was so deceiving of the chaos below but nevertheless I adored it. Stepping onto the ledge I braved the whipping wind with closed eyes. Atop here, the smouldering and fetid stench of the streets below couldn't reach me. Nothing could._

_The wind and rain picked up suddenly whipping around me viciously. Hopping off and turning my back to it, I tried futilely to keep my fag lit as rain poured off my hood into my cupped hands. I could barely hear over the pang of the rain on the shingles but I turned at a heavy crunching sound. The fag I had struggled so hard to keep lit fell from my open mouth. A solid wall of inhuman bulging darkness loomed above me. Masked and draped in a cloak, I wanted to giggle at how phantom-of-the-opera the whole outfit was but I had better sense. The thing raised its arm. I froze dead still as a clawed finger flicked at the stethoscope slung round my neck. _

_"What…the…fuck?"_

_At my words, it thrashed abruptly, whipping back the soaked cloak that draped its massive body. The cloak open, I could plainly see the reason for its bulkiness. In its arms, it held a woman. Her skin pale as porcelain glowed in the harsh lights of the hospital rooftop._

_"'Desdi'" It croaked._

_I was so surprised it spoke all I could do was blink. Whatever it was didn't take my scared silence well. It roared the word again as it thrust its arms…as it thrust _her_ towards my chest. Looking at her barely breathing body, my occupational instinct whispered to me and I suddenly understood. I looked at his mottled claws digging into her lily white skin. They were different but she and I were the same._

_He knew what I was and I was meant to help._

_I moved slowly as I felt her neck. She had a pulse but barely. I rolled her head to face me. I shined my pocket torch on her face and studied it. It bore a unique scar, a hastily scrawled tick in the center of her cheek. Something the creature must have been fond of as it feathered a clawed finger against it. Fluttering her hooded blue eyes I saw her pupils were dilated. Sweat beaded her forehead and her trembling lip but she was cool to the touch. She only groaned as I asked her name. As I moved her around in his arms I figured it was my training that made me so bold but I was still wary. In between touching her, I looked up every once and again for approval. To make sure I was allowed to prod as I did. It didn't even look up from the woman in his arms, it was like it was willing her to wake up._

_Uncovering her lap I gasped. Blood soaked the scrap of fabric around her hips. I started to lift her out of his arms when he growled and pushed me away. What did he expect me to do? I didn't have a wand. I only had a stethoscope. I don't know what doctors do where he came from but I had to take her into the O.R. if she was going to have the slightest chance. _

"_I need to take her…you have to trust me," I tried again, sliding my arms under her. He started that clicking again but I stilled only for a moment._

_What was it that it said initially? _

"'_Desi'…'desi" I repeated in my most soothing tone. I meant her no harm, I understood she needed help and I would give it, no questions asked. For the moment..._

_Reluctantly it loosened his hold. The humanoid gave and I pulled her closed to me, easily cable to carry the weight. I backed away a little and started down the stairs when I heard it follow. _

"_No!" The last thing we needed was an alien tromping around a bunch of probably armed patients. Paye County hospital was in the dead center of a war zone and everyone carried a gun. Even in paediatrics. "I'll be back… I promise. 'Desi."_

"_Desdi…" _

Heavy and sure footed, something not 'Unlimited' stepped into the lobby. Adam paralyzed with fear watched as the bulky bodies that shouldn't bend and fly so easily did. Blood seemed to splash on him from all sides. A 'force' wielded the men left and right, sending their mangled corpses sailing by his head. Feet tromped feverishly all around him. The belonged to bodies in search of an exit. Window, door, chute, they were not discriminating and neither was the force that ripped them from their goal.

Only Cutty dared to stand his ground. Stepping forward, his guns training on the movement that cut through his men. He shot several times and was rewarded with what seemed to be an agonizing groan. Everything suddenly stilled. Darting his yellow eyes over the yawning depths Cuttly let a smile curl his lips.

Oh hell yes…

He got it, whatever it was. As he turned and stalked silently around the room, Adam finally saw his opportunity to leave. With most of the men down in bloody heaps at his feet and the others wandering with their backs to him, he slipped silently into the adjoining hall. He deftly crawled over the fallen pieces of dry wall and body and neared the sanctuary of the emergency treatment complex when he slipped.

_Shit_…

As if the squeal of his sneaker in blood wasn't enough to draw everyone's attention, the crunch of his shoulder as he collided with the floor would be. He froze. Wide eyed and breath held he hoped that they hadn't heard him, but he lifted his head to find the crimson lines of their lasers racing toward him.

He curled instantly, trying to hide behind the overturned chair. Adam watched amazed as the lasers violently swept right over him and danced on the ceiling. Cutty's men screamed and yelled directions where to shoot but it was all in vain. As Adam grew the courage to move, he felt himself being spattered with yet more blood. He was waiting for the moment he'd be next when a hand grabbed hold of him and pulled him, still curled into the hall.

"Up!" a voice barked over the pop of guns.

Adam peeked over his hands and saw Grace sprint her bloody body down the hall. In the flashing light of gun fire, Adam could see her stop at the corner. She motioned with her hands for him to follow and he did letting his sneakers squeak on the polished floors. As they passed the second operating room and then the grievance room, he knew where she was heading: the loading docks.

A van would be a waiting and take them away from this place that had been a source of dread. Even before the Unlimited took the neighbourhood there were frequent shoot outs and shake downs, some even rivalling this horrible night.

Idiot criminals who stupidly thought that the hospital carried cash would storm the building demanding the bales of money only to retreat with a few personal items stolen from those who waited for help in the lobby. Since the United Federation abandoned the Paye District, there was no police protection and the hospital became the most recognizable landmark of the worst District in the one hundred forty eight federate United Federation colonies.

Adam often wondered why they kept it open at all. Why they just didn't let the area die, to which Grace would often tell him that everyone, everywhere should have one place to find aid. Dr. George Armstrong believed this too. Armstrong, according to the nurses, filled Grace with these ideas and it was no surprise when the two decided to marry and stay when United Federation forces withdrew.

While their cause was noble, the people they often encountered where not. While George sought to console a family for a member he could not save, the husband decided that he was to pay for his wife's death with his own. Grace took his murder in surprising stride and boasted to have learned from it. From that day forward, everyone from attendant to doctor was armed with an automatic. Even little Adam was taught how to aim.

When it became clear that the doctors of Paye hospital carried more than a stethoscope the robberies and violence died down and the community turned back to destroying one another outside the hospital walls…until the Unlimited arrived. They demanded total submission from everyone. And their leader Cutty, was a bit smarter than the usual breed of thug and came tonight to set up accounts to electronically rob the hospital. When the Grace refused them, gun fire erupted.

She slid on her side under the accordion door that separated the loading dock and car port. Leaping off the cement ledge she found herself smiling as she rounded the nearest delivery van. Looking over her shoulder Adam wasn't too far behind and the keys were warming in her hand as she drew them from her pocket.

Everything was going right.

She slipped into the driver's seat and with the key, the van roared to life. Adam hopped into the passenger seat and like a pro, Grace peeled out of the port and burned rubber through the side street. Out on the main streets the heavy panting and groaning of the overworked van gave way to silence. Looking out the window Adam noticed that they were passing the exit to their street. He didn't blame her and wasn't going to question her until he saw another neon orange blur from his window. It was the lit sign of the city limits.

He turned in his seat and studied her face. Drawn into a scowl, it as well as the cut that dribbled blood onto her once pristine lab coat belied her beauty.

"Where are we going?"

She was silent so long he thought she wasn't going to speak, "We're leaving Ad,"

"But…you always said we'd stay. George and you…"

"Were wrong Adam," she snapped hotly. _Damn wrong_. She sank in the seat and took a softer tone as she confessed the reason, "We are leaving before you end up like George."

"But I've been trained! I took out three of them before I was out."

The car swerved to the sidewalk, grazing a wino that stood bobbing to some unheard music. Thrusting it in park, she checked her mirrors and then turned to face him. "You are only eleven, if even a day. This is no life for a kid. You shouldn't be shooting henchmen, you should be shooting hoops…or at the very least doing it in a video game."

He crossed his arms and kicked at the dashboard. He was mad but she didn't care. "I love you and I want you to live a better life."

"I like this life…" he said sombrely.

His world wasn't perfect but it was decent. He had friends, best friends and although they weren't blood he had family. And he had Grace. Her hands smoothed his pale round face and brushed back his dark hair. She pulled him close enough to plant a kiss on his head with her broken lips.

"Kid, if all you know is hell nothing else seems so bad."

Turning in her seat again, she thrust the car in first gear when a sudden breeze washed over the cab. The driver's side door had been popped straight off the van at its hinges. It whistled as it flew through the air and landed with a clatter several meters away.

Grace shoved Adam away as she felt something grab her and drag her across the blue naugahide. Adam was reluctant to let go but did as her hands viciously swatted him away. He knew what she wanted but he did not care. Watching her fall on her side out in the rain slick streets he resolved not to loose another parent.

She managed to wiggle free for a moment, freeing up an arm to grasp the textured handle that peeked over her scrubs. She didn't even have time to pull it out before the invisible assailant started to grab at her again, still she took the shot. A resounding pop left the sounds afterwards muffled and she spattered in …neon green?

She scuttled back on her hands and feet as the invisible creature started to become visible. The scent of electricity filled the air as nothingness peeled away, revealing a hunched and dark form. The body rocked violently as another shot rang out. Grace fell still when she backed up into a pair a legs. Looking up she saw Adam with his still smoking gun trained on the downed body. She hissed at him for his defiance and stood, taking the weapon from him and leading him back to the van when a voice rocked her core. The word, so small and singular had be been said to her many times over the years but it never held the weight it did the very first time she heard it.

_I climbed the stairs with uncertainty. Looking at my bloodied scrubs I felt my insides knot. I was up to my elbows inside her, trying to stop the bleeding when I felt something tell me to look up. The girl was awake, her eyes open and trained on me. I moved to ask her what happened but they fluttered shut. _

"_Please…my love," she panted. "Please, my little… love…"_

_As the old saying goes, I didn't know her from Adam but her loss rocked me yet still. That face haunted me. Her eyes spoke of pain, unimaginable pain and her body did as well. Her delicate insides were so ravaged our investigator couldn't even place a cause of death without autopsy. I was satisfied to scribble blood loss. Letting my hand fall on the cool steel of the door handle, I wondered if they would find me the same way. I had to return… I gave my word. I had to tell 'it' she didn't make it. _

_Stepping onto the tarred roof, I looked up to the sky, expecting to the humanoid to fall from it. I jumped when it eased its bulky form from a gargoyle. It craned its neck over me and eagerly looked from side to side. It was expecting her to be limping not far behind but it turned its weighty head to me when it didn't find her._

Lord keep me_… _

_I yelped as it snatched at me with a free arm. Coiling its massive arm as it hoisted me high. I tried to fight it but it was pointless. I heard the scrubs rip as it lifted my tunic to its metallic face. My toes scraped the bumpy rooftop as it buried its face in my chest. It raked its metal cheek almost longingly over my breast. Air whipped past my sides and down over my skin. The damn thing was smelling me…it was smelling _her_ …_

_I suppose I put my hand on it's out of instinct. "I'm truly sorry,"_

_It's head whipped to my hand and then lifted to my face. I was caught breathless in the eyeless stare, wondering what it thought when it set me down gingerly and turned away. It paced menacingly and hastily before stopping still and letting out a deafening roar. As its bellow shook me I knew it had understood what I had yet to say. Now it grieved. Its towering frame hunched with arms clenched at its side it shook its head violently baying to the moonless sky._

_I was still stooped with my hands clasped around my ears when it walked towards me. It growled lowly and I started to balk. I feared it felt I hadn't done enough. Even I felt as if I hadn't done enough. Perhaps if I came out for a smoke that much sooner?_

_It wasn't as gentle as it reached out to grab me again. I jerked wildly as its hand lifted me from between my legs. The touch, as rough as it was, was almost clinical. As if the damn thing was checking to make sure I was female. Jumping off his palm I warned, what I was quite sure now was a 'he', not to get any ideas. I was _not_ about to be a replacement. G-d only knows what he had done to _her

_He turned his back visiting a vent for some reason and I scrambled to the rooftop door. I kept my word so my job was done. This thing was bigger than me, pissed off and possibly horny, I had to get out of here. The door was open, inviting me with its warmth and the glow from its lone bulb when the handle ripped right out of my hand, whipping the cold about me. Looking to my right I saw his green taloned mitt splayed wide against the rusting hatch. I turned at the sound of clicking and was met by the beast again, obviously displeased at my eagerness to get away. _

I should have told someone I was up here

_My only practical means of escape shut, I stood flush against the door waiting for whatever horribleness was to come when he let up, and moved from over me. I held my breath as it reached for its cloak again. I expected to see another broken and bloody female in his arms but there was none. Pulling back more draping, I could see a human baby. The baby, pale as the girl with little black wisps of hair atop his head slept soundly curled in his giant green arms, ignorant to the chaos around it. _

_He carefully turned the babe in his hands and held it to face him. He was careful to keep it bundled in the brown swaddling, hidden from the winds that raced along the rooftop._

"_Enchua ou shen-dav ooman lou-dte kalei." _

Come again?

_Repeating it again, his head studied me expectantly. Like I was supposed to say something to that. _

"_I _don't_ understand you,"_

_Apparently my understanding didn't matter. He held the babe out and took my arm to wrap under it. I understood now he wanted me to hold it so I did, too dumbstruck to do anything else. I cradled the babe close, careful to mind its tiny head and its… soft spot? Smooth, unblemished skin, under flecks of yellow crust told me the babe was brand new. Holding the baby, it suddenly came to me that this child belonged to the girl. _

_I then remembered tales of days before my time. Women gave birth in the most painful fashion. A fashion no longer practiced anywhere…or so I thought. A tiny smear of blood on my finger made me nervous for the child. Looking where my hand had been, I saw a scar like the girl bore on her face cut into its fleshy arm._

_Checking the babe like I once did its mother I looked up to the alien for approval like before to find him gone. He was leaving, walking to the roof's edge before I called out to him. I didn't understand what he expected me to do for the child. Aside from the mark, the baby was healthy, his heart was strong. _

_What was I supposed to do?_

_The humanoid turned slowly and pointed to the babe in my arms. The tinny voiced response took me back. His voice, sounded just like the girl's. _

"'_Love'." _

Adam sneered and tried to pull the gun from her hand, "_Love_?" he repeated "I'll show you 'love'…"

The thing shifted, clutching its wounded chest it slowly rose to its feet. As it lifted its arm Adam warned it to stop. Yanking the weapon to aim at its already bleeding chest. It paused, but only for a moment before trying to raise its arms again. With a hiss of air, it released the helmet that donned its head and let it fall with a metallic clatter. The two stood in silent awe as it lifted its head.

Adam screamed at the hideous sight and unloaded the gun at it. He tossed the spent weapon at it as he slowly peddled backwards to Grace. Bucking against her he tried to pull her back towards the van but she was motionless, kept by the deep set jade eyes of the creature. Above its brow sat the mark she had only seen once before, eleven years ago.

The boy couldn't even stop to think why Grace would freeze _now_, especially when he sensed the danger. Hell he _saw_ danger unfolding to tower at least three feet above them. It was a massive a wall of mottled flesh encased in apparently bullet proof metal. He tugged at Grace's arm again and begged her to move with him. When he felt her stumble backwards he finally thought he had gotten through to her. Locking arms, he tried to hurl her towards the van only to be yoked back.

Grace wound her hand in the boy's shirt, keeping him tacked in place. She didn't blame him for trying to run, she had to smother the instinct herself but this was not a time to.

"Grace _please_…" he pleaded, trying to pull her away with him.

His frightened blue eyes looked at the former invisible creature as it seemed to grow in height before them stepping into the amber light of a street lamp. They were going to die! This thing was going to kill them! Couldn't she see that?

Grace looked over her shoulder to the hysterical boy but didn't let her eyes leave the creature. He was standing directly in front of her now, chest heaving. His clawed mottled fingers reached out for the boy. Adam felt the chill of dread set in as its thumb feathered the birthmark on his arm.

"Adam darling, do you remember when I told you that you were _different_?"


End file.
